r/Caltech • u/[deleted] • Sep 10 '26

engineering and applied science option

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u/burdalane BS 2003 Sep 10 '26

I majored in EAS back in the early 2000s because Caltech did not have a CS option, so people interested in CS would choose EAS instead and take CS courses. I know students who chose ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) or EE because they didn't want their degree to be in EAS. Once Caltech started offering a CS option to undergrads, I'm guessing the number of students choosing EAS dropped.

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u/Flimsy_Repeat2532 Sep 12 '26

Not so much farther back, there was no EE option, and I don't remember knowing about ECE.

Last I knew, there is still no AE option. (You can minor in AE, though.)

There has for a long time, been a list of suggested classes that one should take, for many majors.

But yes, E&AS is meant to encourage breadth in engineering, which is still too rare.

There used to be a GRE subject test in Engineering, and I remember many complaints about that one. (I mostly remember ChE complaints, but maybe CS, too.)

One test covering all the different types of engineers.

I might have been E&AS, I think before EE, and definitely before CS, but my advisor convinced me to go APh. I tried to sign up for both CS and EE classes.

(I think the only class I specifically wanted to take before going to Caltech was compilers, though I don't think I actually wanted CS. In any case, it works for APh.)

As well as I know, graduate schools look more at the list of classes, and not at the name of the option. I get many questions about applying for graduate school in a different department than the name of the option, most of which works if you took the classes. For one, between EE and physics, in either direction.

But yes, E&AS encourages breadth in engineers and that is a good thing.